Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Yes, that's right. From Mexico to Canada through the great spine of the Divide and the most lovely Rocky Mountains, Vicky (aka Mama Moab) and I have traveled the entirety. Our son Jay (aka Captain Underpants) has completed Colorado and New Mexico. He was busy this summer doing very important trail work in the Grand Teton National Park.

We took literally thousands of photographs. If you want to see more and hear more about our travels, please go here: Vicky and Jay Blog. But I decided to post one of my favorites (hard to choose from) here:

It's no Ansel Adams, I admit. But it shows Vicky in the far right corner, the grandeur of the Northern Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, and was taken close to our ending (we had to loop back here due to snow).

We completed this trail as follows: We took mountain bikes on the Grand Divide Trail through New Mexico. We hiked Colorado on foot on the CDT and the Wind River Range on foot. We hiked from Chief Joseph Pass to the Canadian border on foot. We "filled in" the rest by bike, doing the Grand Divide Trail through the Wyoming Basin area and southern Montana.

I have decided that what this place needs is a good history book -- a history of what happened under your feet (or your bike wheels). There are some rich stories and characters to populate such a book. And in the future, I hope to write that. In the mean time, a book on the history of punk rock is percolating and getting closer to reality.

For now, celebrate with me those last vestiges of wild lands that we have in the lower 48. Thank goodness for those who had enough foresight to protect all of it.